Developing an app is just the beginning on a long and tough road to overcome in order to reach the success you imagine. It will be harder and harder in each second you are waiting to take action. Research indicates that competition will be higher in upcoming years. As you can see below, in 2017, the estimated number of mobile app downloads worldwide will be 253.91 billion!
Under these circumstances, your chance to avoid any mistake without negatively affect is very low. However, the situation is not that bad. If you get rid of all mistakes that are commonly made by other app owners, you have a high chance to reach your KPIs. We listed all possible mistakes you can make and the best practices to avoid each of them. Here is your checklist to find out what you should avoid to protect your app from being lost in app stores.
- Start Without Any Planning and Strategy
Without a strategy customized for your app, you only paddle in a gigantic red ocean. Your competitors started to execute their marketing plan for the new year already. According to eMarketer, mobile ad spending will be $40.50 billion in US only. This means, you are already pretty far behind your competitors. What you should do is start smart. Expected results can only be reached by a smart, consistent, and realist strategy.
- Not Knowing Which Metrics to Measure
As it is true in other marketing types, analysis is very important in mobile app marketing too. You should measure the right metrics to see if you are going well. Of course, at the end, what you care is your number of downloads. However, especially in your ad campaigns, you need to measure user-based metrics as well. Retention rates, LTV, and reviews are ideal metrics to do so. These metrics tell you if your app is worth using in the eyes of your current users. Another problem is not knowing how to interpret the metrics followed. According to the research conducted by Tapdaq, 88% of developers do not know how to use the data they found from analytics tools. You should understand the main reasons behind the results and how to use them to get benefit from them.
Source: Tapdaq Data
- Not Knowing How to Use In-App Features (Push Notifications, Onboarding, Subscriptions, and Registration)
After install, your first impression hugely affects the retention rate. This is mostly possible with your onboarding strategy (how well you are welcoming your new users) and the registration experience you provide. In order to optimize them, you should consider user experience and make these steps as simple as possible. Humanize the user onboarding experience, instead of making it gloomy and distracting.
Push notifications are amazing ways to remind yourself. However, it should be done in the smart and appropriate way. You need to make them personalized, timely, and informational.
- Ignoring ASO
App Store Optimization is crucial in app stores. According to research, most users find an app while searching on app stores. This means, you need to be ranked in the browsing results to be found by your audience.
ASO helps make your app understood by your users and app stores in your keywords. To explain yourself, you need to optimize your app title, description, icon, and screenshots, according to the best practices. Today, almost all developers and app owners are aware of the importance of ASO. To start from a good point, start with optimizing your app for your users and app stores.
- Ignoring Your Existing Customers & Lack of Communication
User acquisitions are very important to survive, but are not the only metrics for success. If you do not listen your existing users and don’t fix their concerns and problems with your app, you lose them. Reviews, social media comments, and ratings should be your glasses to see the big picture. Update your app, according to their common needs and communicate with them to learn their feedback. User experience can only be developed if you listen your users. If not, there is no chance to regain them.
- Underestimating User Retention & LTV
Lifetime Value is a metric measuring the quality of users, and it is highly related to your retention rate. If you make it higher, it indicates that your users are loyal, and your retention rate is higher.
Simply, as stated in Apptamin, if your cost of user acquisition (CAC) exceeds LTV, it results in negative return on investment.
- Failing to Adopting Your App to Each Store & Platform
Mostly, all app marketing strategies are adapted to 1 platform and are used in all operations. This results in uninstalls and bad reputation. You need to specify all your operations unique for each platform and each app store. ASO rules (which differ in some ways in App Store and Google Play), creative created, and language used in contents should be customized for unique platforms and app stores. If you use social media ads, you need to be aware of the language and visual differences in each platform.
Conclusion
It is hard to manage everything above to find success in mobile app marketing. However, in this harsh competition, you should be aware of every single detail to win the battle. Don’t forget to create a data-driven, big picture-oriented, and smart roadmap.
